1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates to a set of playing pieces used in a vocabulary word game, as well as a method of play for the word game.
2. Background Information.
There are many methods of improving the vocabulary for an individual. Activities such as reading and writing are useful in this regard, and are often practiced in elementary and high schools. These school work activities are often not appealing to students and viewed as drudgery. If such activities can be incorporated into a game or similar competition, students and adults are more likely to participate, thereby improving their language skills. Various printed indicia such as letters, numbers or pictorial displays have been imprinted on cards, tiles, and the like for use in a wide variety of word games that have become popular.
Some examples of inventions concerned with word games using cards or tiles having letters, numerals and/or pictures are found in the following patents. Roy, in U.S. Pat. No. 742,498, describes a card game with cards containing single, double or triple letters, plus pictorial or descriptive matter. Cards are played to spell the name of a famous person.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,332,249, Ferro discloses a deck of 52 cards, each with two letters of the alphabet plus numbers corresponding to the position of each letter in the alphabet. Players in turn try to spell words by placing one card face up and building on earlier played cards. Either of the two letters on a card may be used in spelling a word.
Armbruster, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,265,334, describes a large deck of cards with each card having one, two or three letters plus a numerical value. Cards are also colored either red, white or blue. Players spell words by combining cards and receive a score equal to the numerical total from the card numbers used for spelling the word.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,783,998, Collins discloses a large deck of cards, having a two letter combination on each card. Players again try to spell words by combining cards and can use either one or both letters from a card to spell a word. In this game players must combine multiple cards to spell just one word.
Patin, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,558, discloses a word-spelling game using a collection of lettered tiles. The face of each tile is marked with two letters of the alphabet such that each letter is recognized as being from one of two sets (e.g. red and black). Some tiles are marked with two different letters and others are marked with two identical letters. The game is played similarly to dominos where the tiles are placed in a specified sequence on a surface. In this game, a word must be formed by adjacent letters from the same set, that is, the red or black letters must spell out a word.
Silver, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,391, describes a word spelling game which has two sets of tiles, with each tile having two letters plus an orientation arrow. The players alternate turns and place one or more tiles from their set on a surface in abutted positions. The tiles must spell one or more words when tracing the orientation arrows from one tile to the next. A xe2x80x9cwild letterxe2x80x9d tile is also employed to be designated a specific letter pair by either player. No time limit is mentioned.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,103, Fiore discloses an initial game where two columns of letters are generated by the random positioning of cubes having letters on the cube surface. The players then write on a game card the names of famous persons having the two initials shown for each row of the two columns. The players are give a set time interval to record their answers on the game card.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,432 by Dwyer describes an alphabet playing card deck having 56 standard size playing cards. Each card has one letter of the alphabet with two cards for each letter, totaling 52 cards. The four remaining cards can be wild cards or written game playing instruction cards. Additionally, the cards may contain a picture of an object that begins with the letter on that specific card. The cards can be arranged and combined in matching letter recognition games, in alphabetic letter sequence racing game and in simple word-forming games.
Nearly all of these games require the players to spell out words using combinations of the cards or tiles each containing one or more letters. This generally requires a large number of playing pieces for a game, particularly if there are more than four to six players participating in the game. Thus, there is a need for a vocabulary word game where many players can participate with a minimum of required playing pieces.
The invention is directed to a collection of playing pieces used in a vocabulary word game, as well as a method of playing the vocabulary word game, where players list as many words as possible having a specified multi-letter combination within a set time period. The multi-letter combinations are those commonly found in English language words and are each printed on one face of a collection of playing pieces such as a set of cards. The playing piece also includes a designator indicating the required location of the multi-letter combination in words. The multi-letter combinations, for example the two letter combination TH, are further designated on each playing piece as being the first (two) letters of a word.(THxe2x80x94, e.g. thing), the last (two) letters of a word (xe2x80x94TH, e.g. width), contained within the word but neither first nor last letters (xe2x80x94THxe2x80x94, e.g. brother), or present at any position in a word (TH*, any of the above three options and associated words). Three or four letter combinations may also be included, each with an associated designator (xe2x80x94ICH, e.g. which, PRES*, e.g. president, express).
The game consists of a defined number of playing intervals (e.g. 8 rounds). The playing pieces are shuffled and one piece is drawn and turned face up for all players to see. Each player then writes on their word pad as many words containing the properly positioned specified multi-letter combination as he/she is able during a set time period (e.g. 1 minute). The lists are reviewed by all players for accuracy and the player with the greatest number of words wins that playing interval. Another playing piece is drawn from the collection for each succeeding interval and the routine is repeated until the defined number of playing intervals is completed. The player winning the greatest number of playing intervals is the game winner. The number of players can vary from 2 to 12 or more.